Postcard from the days of the First World War. ‘Verstoorde Vredes-Illusie’. On the back: 'Verstoorde Vredes-Illusie. De Vredesengel door den Oorlogsdemon uit het Vredespaleis verdreven'. Weenenk & Snel, Den Haag. 14 67695. Dated 1914.

[Translated from Dutch: 'Disturbed Peace-Illusion'. On the back: Disturbed Peace-Illusion. The Angel of Peace expelled from the Peace Palace by the War Demon'].

The Peace Palace and the First World War

For Andrew Carnegie, the opening of the Peace Palace, on 28 August 1913, was a triumph. He began 1914 with great optimism. In his new year’s wish for that year, he declared himself ‘strong in the faith that international Peace [was] soon to prevail’. History would, as known, take a dramatically different course with the outbreak of the First World War later that year. For the sceptics, this was proof that they had been right: the ‘Temple of Peace’ could not prevent war, and conflicts between States would still be fought on the battlefield.